"I Make All Things New"
Easter Sunday, April 11/04
Is.65:17-25; Lk.24:1-12
New Hope
To make sense of the Resurrection, you have to start back with Jesus' life, suffering, and death. The path to Easter Sunday winds unavoidably through Good Friday and past the foot of the cross.
In Mel Gibson's movie The Passion of the Christ, a badly beaten Jesus falls more than once while carrying His cross out for the crucifixion. Mary His mother manages to get close to Him on one of these occasions. She is obviously helpless to do anything to stop the proceedings which are making their slow but relentless way to the hill of Golgotha. Attempts to rescue or even lessen the suffering of her dear son seem hopeless. It's at this point, as Jesus shoulders His cross for the final stage of His journey, that the screenwriter has Him say something to her that seems totally senseless and irrelevant: "Behold, I make all things new." Yet He's on the way to His execution. What does "making new" have to do with the cross?
Only at the end of the movie, when a resurrected Jesus with a nail-scarred hand walks out of the tomb, do we begin to understand. Easter is about a radically new start that Good Friday has made possible. There is new hope because the God-man's suffering has shifted from us the guilt and shame that sin, our stubborn rebellion, had brought upon us.
In Rev.21:5 the One seated on the throne says, "I am making everything new!...these words are trustworthy and true." A loud voice has just announced, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain..." (Rev.21:3f)
The Lord's statement as He takes up His cross, "I make all things new," gives us new hope. Like Mary, it may seem as if everything in our life is going wrong, we're losing everything. Sometimes families fracture and relationships dissolve, even best friends move away and fail us. The past few months have been bleak for beef farmers; now poultry producers in lower BC have to watch as their flocks are exterminated, some 19 million birds, as a precaution against the bird flu. Other people's problems are medical: it seems we just get over one problem when another afflicts us. We are tempted to lose hope. But Jesus tells us we can find new hope in Him, He's carrying the cross for us.
The secular world operates in a political order. But lately even that has offered little hope. A new Prime Minister is immediately submerged in the sponsorship scandal. At the municipal level, our elected officials struggle to keep taxes down in view of downloading of services. And the situation in Iraq and the Middle East seems to be deteriorating instead of improving. We're hungry for hope.
Professor/preacher George Buttrick comments: "Our world is dark and frantic, and it would appear that if history continues, it will be in spite of human leaders, not because of them. There are few gleams of political hope. But then, hope never was political. Its only ground is God, who raised Christ from the dead, 'the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep'. We would never have learned the vastness of the universe if night had not come. Perhaps our present darkness will reveal providences and powers in God which otherwise we could not have known. Bombs may fall, but God does not fall. History may end, but God never ends. So we choose now a faith for our times. We choose Jesus and the Resurrection, and thus we shall know that 'everything matters, nothing matters'. 'Everything matters', in glad obedience; 'nothing matters,' because nothing can thwart the love and power of God."
We have new hope because Jesus embraces the cross and through suffering in our place gives us a new start.
New Order
In Rev.21(1,4) John also records, "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away...And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, '...the old order of things has passed away.'" A new order. John was foreseeing the fulfillment of what Isaiah prophesied centuries before Jesus was born: the Lord said in chapter 65(17,25), "Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth...The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but dust will be the serpent's food." A new realm coming to pass, replacing the old order.
Actor/producer Gibson realized that when he undertook the making of his recent blockbuster, he was going up against significant realms of an evil nature. [show interview clip from EWTN The World Over Live] There are other realms outside our own; there's something "bigger than this" that gives this realm meaning. Resurrection is a portal into these other realms. The angels the women saw that morning were an anomaly, a curious momentary overlap between God's space and this material realm.
Life is a struggle between the good and evil realms which will only end when God's new order intervenes and lions lose their appetite for lambs. Resurrection is God's stamp of vindication upon Jesus' fight against Satan. Jesus said of the hour when He was about to lose His own life, "Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out." (John 12:31) The Bible says (Heb.2:14) that Jesus shared in our humanity so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death, the devil. Christians now are involved in the mopping-up operations, incursions against the evil realm.
Samaritan's Purse tells of a band of guerillas that has been torturing, maiming, raping, murdering, and enslaving helpless civilians in northern Uganda. Thousands of people have been killed, and more than a million driven from their homes. On Feb.21 the guerilla army attacked one of these refugee camps and massacred more than 200 men, women, and children. Over 30,000 boys and girls have been kidnapped and forced into an existence of indoctrination, combat, and slavery. Samaritan's Purse, working with a children's home that helps those who've escaped from the guerillas, recently airlifted dozens of these children to a protected area and is reuniting them with their families. One boy, Ali, a five-year-old orphan, was just a baby when he was rescued by Ugandan troops after a skirmish with the terrorists. They found him on the battlefield, strapped to the back of his dead mother, who had been forced to fight for the guerilla army. Christ's resurrection power still reclaims lives from the jaws of death, and makes a new start possible. A new order of peace not conflict for these victims.
New Purpose
The apostle Paul wrote, "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins...If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men." (1Cor.15:17f) Without the Resurrection, life has no discernible purpose; 'twould appear the Cross is meaningless, evil and senseless suffering has won. But the testimony of the earliest martyrs, maintained to their own tortured deaths, is that "Christ has indeed been raised from the dead..." (1Cor.15:20) Or as Peter himself said, "We did not follow cleverly invented stories...but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty." (2Pet.1:16) The rolled-away stone shows there are bookends to our life, it has direction, accountability, and purpose; what we do in the long run really matters.
In another part of the interview, Mel Gibson talks about how important Jesus' sacrifice is to him. Because the Incarnation really happened, because we have this complete trustworthy deposit of these historical events, life matters; it's not just a selfish one-time competition for world domination. [show video clip] The sacrifice and Resurrection of Jesus are ultimately and eternally important, they give purpose to our life; it's more than simply a rat race, or matter of dog-eat-dog.
When things go wrong in this life, when we don't get what we want, it's easy to become frustrated and lose sight of God's purpose. The purposefulness of God's "new order" glimpsed by John and Isaiah is reflected in vv20-23 of Is.65: "Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years [THE FRUSTRATION OF EXISTENCE - SHORTENED LIVES]; he who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere youth; he who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed. [HERE HE SWITCHES TO ANOTHER FRUSTRATION OR PURPOSELESSNESS - THE FRUSTRATION OF EFFORT] They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plant and others eat. For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people; my chosen ones will long enjoy the works of their hands. They will not toil in vain or bear children doomed to misfortune..." God does not intend for our existence or our effort to be futile, but fruitful. There is purpose to living for the Lord. The last verse in Paul's great "Resurrection Rhapsody", 1Cor.15(58), says: "Therefore [NOTE THE THEREFORE: AS A RESULT OF JESUS BEING RESURRECTED] Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." Christ bestows upon us new purpose, there's importance in what we do for Him; it matters.
Walter Gamble is a 75-year-old retired Pentecostal pastor in Surrey BC. Well, maybe "retired" isn't the right word. Five years ago he accepted two new jobs with Christian organizations. For about ten hours a week he does administrative work as national co-ordinator for the Ebenezer Emergency Fund, which since 1991 has assisted more than 100,000 Jews return safely to Israel from the former Soviet Union. He's also a member of the board for MissionFest Vancouver, a role which, during MissionFest season, can see him working up to another 20 hours a week. Walter says it's "a thrilling thing" to see 150 local churches working together for world evangelism; in his words, "It's exciting to work with people from various congregations with the same vision of reaching the world." The vision of these agencies turns Walter's crank, he enjoys partnering in their purpose. He adds, "Obviously when a person gets old, they slow down...[but] both of these areas of ministry are close to my heart - and it motivates me a great deal to continue to be a part of them."
What new purpose is the Lord arousing in YOUR heart, with Resurrection power? What, in Walter Gamble's words, "gives [you] great satisfaction to be a part of what God is doing...?"
New Motivation
Jesus was highly motivated to go to the cross. In the movie, one of the criminals thinks He's crazy because He actually seems to be embracing the cross. But that's what He came to earth for; He was born to die for our sins. The Resurrection is the Father's seal of approval on His Son's mission, the heavenly testimony that the job was accomplished. Jesus was motivated to carry through on the deadly mission. "For the joy set before Him [He] endured the cross..." (Heb.12:2)
The Resurrection gives us new motivation to live for heaven, not just earthly goals. Pay attention to how much the Lord talks about the joy, gladness, and delight in the new order (vv18f): "But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy.I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people..." What makes it such a delightful place to be? God's very presence, blessing, and responsiveness to those He loves. VV23f: "They will be a people blessed by the Lord...Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear." Or as Rev.21(3f) puts it, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them.They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.He will wipe every tear from their eyes." The outstanding thing about heaven will not be streets of gold or glittery crowns, but the privilege and preciousness of the Lord's presence, near at hand.
The path to Easter lies through Good Friday. Jesus calls us to share His sufferings so that we may also share His glory (Rom.8:17). He commanded His followers in Luke 9(23f), "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it." Trusting Jesus, our new motivation is to live for Him. Totally. Even if it means rejection and loss in the world's eyes.
Filmmaker Gibson took a hefty risk when he ploughed 30 million of his own dollars into a movie he at first couldn't find a distributor for. Neil Schulman, a Jewish Los Angeles science fiction writer (who has launched a website jewsforgibson.com), praises him, writing, "Mel Gibson risked his own money to make this film...[and] could easily have ended up broke and blacklisted in Hollywood." Before the release of the film a month and a half ago, it wasn't certain it wouldn't be a "bust". In another interview taped before Feb.25, Jim Caviezel, who played the part of Jesus in the movie, shares how Mel warned Caviezel this could be the end of the actor's career. [show video] He was aware he might not get work again. But he was willing to "go down with the ship". For Jim Caviezel, serving his faith and his God mattered more than making money. His goal was spiritually motivated, not materially.
Of course, in retrospect we know that the movie has grossed over $1 billion and netted Gibson $331 million (domestically alone) on his $30 million investment. It would appear that the Lord has rewarded his initiative. (Now we just have to pray especially for him not to yield to temptation!) Even more significantly, Gibson stated his goal was to profoundly change people's lives, and God is using this film to do just that.
What about you? What cause would you be willing to forsake your livelihood for, your entire career? Will you embrace the cross Jesus holds out for you? Are you ready to "go down with the ship" if that's where obedience leads? What is the Lord challenging you to give up, to risk for His cause?
Whatever it is, there could be no better reward than your own resurrection, still to come through Christ's grace. He is "the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep" - first of many. Though death and disease and hardship and hurt may challenge us in this life, the future Jesus has for us gives us new motivation to endure for His sake. He gives us the victory over the sting of death and the power of sin. Remember His words, for they are spirit and life. (1Cor.15:56; Jn.6:63)
As the lightning-clad realm-hoppers teased the women that first Easter morning: "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; He has risen! Remember how He told you, while He was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’" (Luke 24:5-7) Truly, He does make all things new. Let's pray.